Fire Painting

Thought this video about Steve Spazuk was pretty fascinating!

I Had Quite a Surprise

Did you know that eccentric film director Tim Burton has also written poetry? I'm sure it will come as no surprise when I say that it's eccentric.

From his collection titled The ‎Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy:

The Girl with Many Eyes
by Tim Burton

One day in the park
I had quite a surprise.
I met a girl
who had many eyes.

She was really quite pretty
(and also quite shocking!)
and I noticed she had a mouth,
so we ended up talking.

We talked about flowers,
and her poetry classes,
and the problems she'd have
if she ever wore glasses.

read the rest here

**********

Vincent, narrated by Vincent Price:



**********
There are more poems from The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy here. (I will be disappointed if no one brings up Edward Gorey in the comments. :-))

Margaret at Reflections on the Teche has the Poetry Friday round-up.

Batik

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
~Oscar Wilde

UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) named Indonesian batik to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

UNESCO: "The techniques, symbolism and culture surrounding hand-dyed cotton and silk garments known as Indonesian Batik permeate the lives of Indonesians from beginning to end: infants are carried in batik slings decorated with symbols designed to bring the child luck, and the dead are shrouded in funerary batik...Batik is dyed by proud craftspeople who draw designs on fabric using dots and lines of hot wax, which resists vegetable and other dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water and repeating if multiple colours are desired."

The top video is about 7 minutes; the second one is half as long. Watch whichever you have time for! :-)


Formal Batik Sarong worn by guard with sword at Sultan's Palace, Yogyakarta
photo by Ian Alexander

Sri Lankan Batik
photo by Amila Tennakoon
Over the past several decades the Indonesian art of batik making has become firmly established in Sri Lanka. Indeed, it is now the most visible of the island’s crafts.

Sri Lankan Batik
photo by Amila Tennakoon

Rayela Pillow, Thai batiked indigo hemp with ostrich egg shell discs
photo by Rachel Biel

Indonesia, Java, Semarang, Kudus, and Demak, circa 1880

Roketsuzome (Japanese style batik) printing wheels at Roketsuzome Yamamoto, Kyoto, Japan

Traditional Arts - Batik
photo by Steel Wool

WikiHow: Three Ways to Batik

The YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus

Last week, Keri wondered how I had heard about the Icelandic band I featured. My answer last week is the same for this week's group: I received a press release about them because they are touring. I would give a warning that this video made me teary, but I think that's just me and you'll be fine.


Donate to the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus here.

Bug, Windshield

E. Markham

Two poems today by Edwin Markham, plus a song related to the first poem. Edwin Markham trivia: At the time of his death in 1940, Markham had collected 15,000+ books (some reports say 30,000), which he bequeathed to Wagner College, along with his personal papers. Markham's correspondents included Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Carl Sandburg, and Amy Lowell.

Preparedness
by Edwin Markham

For all your days prepare,
And meet them ever alike:
When you are the anvil, bear—
When you are the hammer, strike.

***************


Everything can change in the blink of an eye
So let the good times roll before we say goodbye
because
Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug
~Mark Knopfler

***************

Outwitted
by Edwin Markham

He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

***************

The Poetry Friday round-up is at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.

Button Up

“When buttons came in, about 1650, people couldn't get enough of them and arrayed them in decorative profusion on the backs and collars and sleeves of coats, where they didn't actually do anything. One relic of this is the short row of pointless buttons that are still placed on the underside of jacket sleeves near the cuff. These have been purely decorative and have never had a purpose, yet 350 years later on we continue to attach them as if they are the most earnest necessity.”
~Bill Bryson

I like to consider the artistry of items that don't seem particularly artistic. Like buttons.

Jasperware button, front & back

Satsuma iris button (self-shanked), showing front and back

Hand-painted Sewing Button
by Fiona MacNeil

Fitted doublet, associated with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, 1594–1632

Buttons, Russia, 1908-1917. Faberge. Lapis lazuli, diamonds, gold, silver, glass, enamel.

Buttons
by Lisa Clarke

Once a handkerchief
storebukkebruse

Pink Silk Nouveau button ring
allison fomich

Wilhelmina von Hallwyl wedding dress

Shots I Got Before They Ran Away

A dog on a walk
is like a person in love −
You can't tell them
it's the same old world.
~Pat Owen

When I'm walking with Lucy, sometimes I see blue herons, green herons, turtles, and goslings, but Lucy generally frightens them all off. So taking pictures of them is a tricky task, especially since I have to hold on tight to the leash or Lucy will pull it out of my hands. Here Lucy is approaching some geese and goslings with interest. Alone, the geese run away from her, but when they have goslings, they stand their ground:

Happy to get this photo before they all slid into the water:

Poetry in the Sand

Sinn er siður í landi hverju. (Each country has its own custom.)
~Icelandic proverb

Icelandic band Árstíðir performs Ljóð í sand (Poetry in the Sand) live:

All-Women Slam, Videos Wanted

The Kentucky Women Writers Conference is trying something new for the 10th anniversary of its Wild Women of Poetry Slam. This nationally renowned all-women slam will open up its first round of competition to poets residing anywhere in the United States, who may submit a video of their spoken-word performance via the Internet through June 8.

Poets are invited to submit their performances by emailing a video of an original, three-minute slam poem via Youtube or Vimeo link to Artistic Director Bianca Spriggs at biancaspriggsATgmailDOTcom no later than June 15.

Spriggs will select the top 12 submissions, and the 12 first round finalists can be voted on by viewers the week of June 15-22 at www.wizehive.com/contests/2015-wild-women-of-poetry-slam. The top four receiving the most votes will be invited to compete in a live two-round slam during the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. The slam will be held 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Downtown Arts Center in Lexington.

The featured poet and celebrity judge of the Wild Women of Poetry Slam is Jessica Helen Lopez. Spriggs will return as emcee of the event. The winner of the poetry slam will receive the Faith A. Smith Poetry Prize, a $500 cash prize established by poet Frank X Walker in honor of his mother.

For more information on the conference, running Sept. 11-12, visit online at www.kentuckywomenwriters.org.

Bio Poems

If it is a terrifying thought that life is at the mercy of the multiplication of these minute bodies [microbes], it is a consoling hope that Science will not always remain powerless before such enemies...
~Louis Pasteur

I read "Helen Keller" by Langston Hughes and knew I wanted to share it with you all. It inspired me to try to write one in a similar form about another historical figure. Not sure it's a good idea to share both of them at the same time, but I am going to suck it up and do it anyway. If anybody else wants to try this form, please share your poem with me!

Helen Keller with her dog Kamikaze

Helen Keller
by Langston Hughes

She,
In the dark,
Found light
Brighter than many ever see.
She,
Within herself,
Found loveliness,
Through the soul's own mastery.
And now the world receives
From her dower:
The message of the strength
Of inner power.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Louis Pasteur performing an experiment

Louis Pasteur
by Tabatha Yeatts

He
examined
tiny worlds
to reveal microbiology.
He
explored
key connections
to shield humanity.
And so the world receives
from his insight:
Tools defeating
microbes' might.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget to sign up for the Summer Poem Swap before June 1st!

Random Noodling is the Poetry Friday round-up host today.

Orchards

Anyone who has a garden, park or orchard tree has an opportunity to ensure that it offers protection, brings beauty and bears fruit for future generations. In short, every one of us should aspire to be a forester.
~Gabriel Hemery

Today's topic was prompted by a mention of the orangerie at Versailles. I was intrigued by the word "orangerie" -- it's actually a building for housing citrus trees in winter (a specialized greenhouse), but I started thinking about fruit groves, and here we are with orchards:

On the Grounds of l'Orangerie du Château de Versailles
photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra

The Cherry Orchard
photo by Julie Falk

In the Orchard, 1885-86
by James Guthrie

Apple Blossoms
by Dwight William Tryon

Peach Flower Between Rows, South Carolina
photo by Martin LaBar

Frosty morning, Fields at Bishop's Orchard, Guilford, Connecticut
photo by slack12

Zaun mit Obstbäumen
by Gebhard Fugel

Verger au Printemps (An Orchard in Spring)
by Isidore Verheyden, 1846-1905

Summer Poem Swap Sign-ups (and a Wreath to Crown Your Honored Name)

photo by Elena

It's time for Summer Poem Swap sign-ups! How does it work? Every two weeks beginning June 22 through August 17, you will mail and receive a poem. (You write five poems; you receive five poems.) I match swappers up so they are sending and receiving poems from five different people.

Interested? Have questions? Email me! tabatha(at)tabathayeatts(dot)com. The deadline for joining is June 1st.

In honor of Mother's Day, here is a poem by Christina Rossetti for her mother. It served as the dedication for a book of Rossetti's poems:

Sonnets are full of love
by Christina Rossetti

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

***********

Today's Little Ditty is the Poetry Friday round-up host.

Valériane Leblond

The language itself, whether you speak it or not, whether you love it or hate it, is like some bewitchment or seduction from the past, drifting across the country down the centuries, subtly affecting the nations sensibilities even when its meaning is forgotten.
~Jan Morris, Wales: The First Place

Little hearts shoot out of my eyes when I look at French artist Valériane Leblond's work. Her specialty is painting with oils on wood. She lives in Wales, so you'll see that the titles aren't very French. :-) Thank you, Valériane, for allowing me to share these!

Mrs. Llwyd
by Valériane Leblond

Traethau Dyfed
by Valériane Leblond

Mynd i glwydo
by Valériane Leblond

Drain gwyn y gwanwyn
by Valériane Leblond

Blodau haul
by Valériane Leblond

Efallai nid heddiw...
by Valériane Leblond

Mwyara
by Valériane Leblond

Valériane's Etsy shop

Palladio

Palladio was inspired by the sixteenth-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, whose work embodies the Renaissance celebration of harmony and order. Two of Palladio's hallmarks are mathematical harmony and architectural elements borrowed from classical antiquity, a philosophy which I feel reflects my own approach to composition.
~Karl Jenkins

Palladio by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins:

A Prime Example

There is nothing like a gleam of humor to reassure you that a fellow human being is ticking inside a strange face.
~Eva Hoffman

I like slam poems with a bit of humor in them, such as Taylor Mali's and these by Harry Baker:



A Year of Reading is the Poetry Friday round-up host.